


We Can Be Us

by littlemisfit5290



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Canon Compliant, Comfort/Angst, F/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Prompt Fic, The X-Files Revival, Tumblr Ask Box Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-02
Updated: 2016-10-30
Packaged: 2018-08-19 04:53:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8190809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlemisfit5290/pseuds/littlemisfit5290
Summary: "I'll be fine, and William will be, too. Just stop being the stoic, heroic M.D around him, Scully.  Just be you.”She wonders if she even knows who that person is.Mulder/Scully/William fic. Set post revival.





	1. Chapter 1

He’s lying in bed in the unremarkable house, still weak but not as haggard and lifeless as he’d been just days prior. All thanks to the exhausted woman seated to his right.

  
She needed a nap, she needed chocolate and an old movie and three glasses of wine and a bubble bath and then another nap. But since they returned to this house her needs had come secondary. To his and to the current occupant of the guest room.

   
After the events on the bridge, the invasion aftermath, with the help of Agent Miller, Scully got Mulder situated at the house. Started him on multiple IV’s, treated and cleaned his wounds and prayed. When he was in stable condition she and Einstein and Agent Reyes began searching for William. They located him beside his parents bodies in rural Wyoming.

   
He was grief stricken but alive and well, and agreed to help treat Mulder. But after permitting them to harvest his stem cells, he was determined to go through the recovery process alone. Telling the doctor of the house she could focus on the real patient here, not the one who was always remarkably quick to heal.

   
The three of them were under the same roof for the first time in fifteen years. One was in the spare room across the hall, one was bed ridden, and the other was perched on the edge of a desk chair . Hands folded neatly in her lap, head bowed, her loose reddish curls effectively hid her profile. Mulder wondered if it was intentional styling.

  
“Scully..” he rasps, trying to sit up.

   
“Mulder, lie down. You need to rest.”

   
“I’ve been resting for over a week, Scully. I’m fully and completely rested. I could run a marathon right now. You haven’t slept in days.”

   
“I took a nap earlier. I’m fine,” she insists. Standing up she grabs a pillow from her side of the bed, slides it behind his back.

   
Before she can move her hand he grabs hold. Holds her in place.

   
“Look at me, Scully.”

   
Reluctantly she does as asked. A lump forms in the back of his throat seeing that her eyes are shiny, red rimmed.

   
“You’re not going to get anywhere with him if you’re spending every waking minute with me.“

   
“Mulder, I’ve tried…”

   
“You’re treating him like a patient, Scully. You go in his room five times a day to check his vitals and bring him soup. Make sure his stitches are healing.”

   
"Because that’s my damn job, Mulder,” she snaps. Speaking again after a beat. “William asked for time and space to recuperate and I’m giving that to him.”

   
"And he has recuperated, Scully. You said so yourself. But if you’re not careful he’s gonna treat this house as the hospital that it’s become and check himself out against medical advice.”

   
“Well what do you expect me to do? Force him to stay under our roof? Suddenly start acting like the mother that raised him the past fifteen years?”

   
“You are his mother, Scully,” he reminds as she shakes her head, chokes back a sob.

   
“His mother was Lydia Van DeKamp. I’m the woman that gave him up, found him grieving fifteen years later and in spite of that, asked him to go under the knife to save you.”

   
“And a lot more people, Scully. He signed onto this to help save lives. You recruited him for that. You swept in and helped him out of the rubble and wreckage like some kind of super hero.”

   
“A super villain, maybe.”

   
“No. He doesn’t see it that way. Otherwise he wouldn’t have gone through with it. Our kid sides with the good guys,” he smiles, seeing a trace of one form on her face.

   
“You saved him, Scully. And he returned the favor. But now you’ve got to be more to him than the caped crusader with magic bracelets.”

   
“And the invisible plane,” Scully adds, managing a soft smile. Smiling back Mulder shifts closer to her, winces in the process.

   
“Mulder…”

   
“Relax, Wonder Woman, I’m fine.”

   
Squeezing her hand he brings it to his lips, kisses it.

   
“And William will be too. Just stop being the stoic, heroic M.D around him. Just be you.”

   
Curling up gingerly on his shoulder she lets out a slow breath, glances through the open door to the closed one across the hall.

   
“Just be me…” she thinks. Wonders if she even knows who that person is.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Was given a prompt on Tumblr and decided to put it towards a second chapter of this fic. Let me know what you think, maybe there will be a part three. :)

Will sits and stares at the shut door from his curled up position on the bed. His bed now, he supposes.

  
The room is nice, painted light blue. There’s light hardwood floors, a soft area rug, matching dresser and nightstand and bed. He even has his own bathroom. 

  
He feels like he’s in a nice hotel on vacation. But it’s a house. Their house. _Her_ house. 

  
He curls up smaller on the bed, pulls the blanket tighter around him even though he’s not even cold. 

  
His stitches don’t hurt. He knows he can probably get up, take a walk. Do something for himself for a change. But part of him doesn’t want to leave this spot. He wishes he could fall asleep and wake up in Wyoming. Have all of this be another bad dream. One that his mom would wake him up from, try and help him forget over a cup of hot chocolate.

  
She told him since he was a kid that’s all that they were. Bad dreams, make believe, the overactive imagination of a brilliant and creative little boy. She would always tell him to think happy thoughts, that they would help him. Her happy thoughts always did. He’d tune in like a favorite radio station whenever he was frightened. Pick up on the wise, warm, calming thoughts of Lydia Marie VanDeKamp to block out the bad ones.  
  
  
The ones that never failed to lock into his brain. That replayed the pleas and terror and prayers of the red haired medical doctor across the hall. The thoughts that told him to go to a nearby bridge or a clearing in Oregon or a desert in New Mexico. That reminded him he was part of a master plan and nothing else. 

  
He wasn’t though. Because of his mother he was someone else for a decade and a half. As close as someone like him could ever get to being normal. 

  
The normality stopped that night. When she died it felt like a feed went dead. Like he’d lost his ultimate lifeline. He sat in the burnt wreckage by her body and the love and warmth was replaced by pain and chilling terror. The thoughts, the voices, all of them invaded his brain. Summoned him anywhere and everywhere all at once. The white noise blinded him and made his head want to explode. Until he saw a light in the field. Her flashlight.  
  
The beam touched him first, then her hand and when their eyes met he knew. Even if her eyes and hair hadn’t been identical to his, he knew. They were connected and her thoughts filled the void. Formed a firewall between him and them. He felt her determination to protect him, knew she’d steeled herself to all the outside forces. Her pain and fear about Mulder, her concern and grief for him was all masked by anger and a need to lock it all down. Keep her partner and their child safe, whatever it took.

  
Since their encounter Will felt secure but scared shitless at the same time. He knew the lengths Dr. Scully had gone to and was going to, that she’d swept into what was left of his life like a superhero. He needed a savior that night as much as she did. But now that they were saved, safe even, the next steps were a challenge that had the both of them playing chicken. Her on her side of the door and him on his.

  
He senses her knock before he hears it. Sits up when he hears her voice. 

  
“Can I come in?”

  
She sounds hoarse, tired. He’s tired too, not really up for a talk which he knows she’s here for. If her visit was on M.D business, she wouldn’t be this hesitant. 

  
“I’m kind of tired. Can you come back later with the soup?” he asks. Not wanting to sound like a spoiled punk ordering the help around. He really is tired though, wonders if she can feel it.

  
“I just want to check….”

  
“Check what?”

  
“On you,” she says, opening the door a crack. “On how you’re doing.”

  
“Well you’re the medical doctor. Shouldn’t you tell me?” he asks, then grins. Earning a smile, a light laugh. It’s familiar, warms him almost as much as a cup of hot chocolate.

  
“Well, physically you’ve made substantial progress,” she says, walking further into the room. “You’re a fast healer. You said so yourself.”

  
“Yeah. I mean I’ve always been like that,” he says with a shrug. Feels like she knows that too.

  
She nods, pulls a chair over. She looks shaky on her feet and paler than usual. Even without being able to read her, it’s obvious she’s exhausted and needs something more comfortable to collapse into than a rickety wooden chair.

  
“Here, take a seat,” he offers, shifting over on the bed. She goes to shake her head and he shakes his first.

  
“It’s fine. It’s your house, right?”

  
“William, I want you to feel comfortable here, too. It’s my fault, I never exactly gave you a tour.”

  
“You had other things on your mind. Believe me, I…I know.”

  
Frowning she bites her lip, perches beside him on the bed.  
  
  
“Can you pick up on everything that I-“

  
“Pretty much. It’s stronger with you than it is with Mulder. But he’s still recovering and all that. It makes sense.”

  
“Does it bother you?”

  
“It’s like I’m listening to the radio. I’m pretty used to it.”

  
“I feel like I’ve had a one track mind lately,” she sighs. “I’m not normally so…”

  
“I know,” he says truthfully. It doesn’t do much to assuage her guilt, but talking to her seems to have a shared, positive effect. The intense roar he used to pick up from her has toned down, turned to a soothing hum. She’s not as daunting now. He wonders how long it can stay this way.

  
“How’s your arm?” she asks, gently reaching for his left wrist encased in plaster. He hadn’t let on to it being broken until she spotted it, prompting him to explain he’d caught it under some debris. She’d set the break and casted it. Between her healing abilities and his own he was on the mend, to the point the injury hardly bothered him. 

  
“It’s barely even sore anymore. Just itchy.”

  
“Well don’t even think about sliding a pencil underneath the cast to try and scratch. That only leads to more trouble.”

  
“Great,” he snorts. “Now you put the idea in my head.”

  
“Sorry. That wasn’t my intention,” she says, giving him a shy smile.

  
“How’s Mulder doing?”

  
“He’s making progress. I think in a day or two I’m going to have him up and walking around.”

  
“That’s good. I…I’m glad I could help him. Help you help him.”

  
“Without you I wouldn’t have been able to do very much,” she says softly. A fresh wave of emotions washes over her. Hits him square in the chest. This is the most unguarded she’s been since Mulder’s treatment began to take and she finally let herself break down. It had been brief but it had happened, and Will endured each bit of it behind the guest room door. She hadn’t cried like that since the night she gave him up. He wished he didn’t recall that so vividly. He wished a lot of things swirling through his head weren’t so vivid. 

  
“I never thanked you. For helping Mulder, for agreeing to the procedure, I…”

  
“I knew how you felt. I knew it wouldn’t take long for me to bounce back from it,” he sighs. “I…I know I couldn’t save my parents but, at least I could try and save somebody.”

  
“If I could’ve gotten to you faster, sweetheart, I would’ve treated them myself and tried to save their lives. You know that I-“

  
“If I couldn’t help them I don’t think you could’ve either,” he scoffs. His tone takes him by surprise and he knows she’s similarly affected, but he’s tired and trying so hard to tune out but in his mind he’s still trapped with them, back there. He's in the rubble and the smoke and he's trying so hard to help but nothing happens. Nothing works. Not the CPR, not praying, not crying and screaming for help. Nothing fucking works and in seconds they’re just gone.  
  
  
Quickly he turns away, tears in his eyes as he tries to catch his breath.

  
“Will…”

  
“I’m fine, I…I’m fine,”

  
“Baby, I’m here. Please, let me help. Whatever you need to say or tell me, please. Just talk to me, Will," she begs. "I can handle it.”

  
“Can you?” he chokes out, looking at her incredulously as she takes a breath. Attempts to steady them both.

  
“Helping your parents survive their injuries would have been a miracle. I wish every day that I could’ve given you that miracle.”

  
“But you didn’t drive all the way from D.C to Wyoming to track them down and save their lives. Why would you? They just would’ve been in the way of you getting to me. Getting what you needed from me!”

  
“That’s _not_ true, Will,” Scully says sharply. “You must know that’s not the way that I feel.”

  
“Yeah, but not because you told me.”

  
Getting to his feet he folds his arms over his chest, bows his head before shaking it in disbelief. The wave he felt before is double the strength now and he knows everything he’s saying is hitting her full force. He wishes he could stop it but whatever’s been started, isn’t going away anytime soon.

  
“William, I’ve kept my distance to try and give you space, some time to heal, time to, process. I didn’t want to push you! I just wanted to-“

  
“Protect me. I know. That’s all you’ve ever done for me. And I’m not ungrateful. I’m not angry. I know why you did what you did,” he sighs.  
  
  
Turning back towards her, arms still folded, his blue eyes look down to where she’s still sitting on the bed. Lock with her tearful, clouded over pair. 

  
“I know why you put me up for adoption. I know what you were up against, then and now. I see it and hear it and sense it every minute of every day.”

  
“My God, baby…”  

  
“You’re working overtime to shield me from it, from all of them. I’m glad you can but I wish for just a second that you’d stop! That you’d drop your guard enough to just be…”

  
Trailing off he looks down and away from her, shuts his eyes. He wishes with everything in him he doesn’t have to say the words. That for once someone else can read him.

  
“Be what you need?” she asks. Her voice cracks on the last word and his eyes snap open, focus on her. She’s trembling, tears sliding down her face as she shakes her head, clasps her hand over her mouth.

  
“I don’t know if I can…” she chokes out, almost inaudibly. He picks up on it though clear as day and shakes his head, sits beside her on the bed.

  
“But _I_ do,” he says, giving her a shy smile as she meets his eyes. Manages a watery smile of her own before hugging him. Her arms are so tight around him he can hardly breathe but he returns the embrace just as fiercely anyway. Knowing she needs it as much as him.

  
“I know I’ve kept my guard up. I know that I shouldn’t have, I just…the thought of losing…of anyone coming for…”

  
Her voice trails off and he nods, drops his head to rest on her right shoulder.

  
“I know. Scares me too.”

  
“I won’t let it happen though, alright? I promise. I’ll prot-“

  
“Protect me. How’d I guess you were gonna say that.”

  
She laughs then, turns to plant a kiss on the side of his head.

  
“God, I missed you so much.”

  
“I know that too…Mom,” he says softly, keeping the embrace a few moments more before pulling back, wiping his eyes.

  
“Will, you don’t have to call me that if you...I don’t expect you to-“

  
“I just took it for a test drive, but…I….I didn’t mind it.”

  
“Me either,” Scully admits, giving him another full smile before she stands up, squeezes his hand.

  
“C’mon, let’s go see your dad.”

 


End file.
